The Great American Sellout (2000)
Watercolors and liquid paper on canvas, 16" x 20"
I wrote the following for this Watercanvas painting on my arts website (DanielThomas.org), so I decided to share it here. I believe I wrote it in 2003 when the site launched. Enjoy:
The Great American Sellout was my second painting after Mario and Luigi Are Jerks to use watercolors on canvas. You'll notice that the colors are much stronger in this sophomore effort. There is a reason for that. For the first painting, I used one of those cheap kiddie watercolor paint sets. You know, a long tube with ovals of dried watercolors; just add water with the brush until the paint dissolves, and you're ready to go. This time, I went back to the tube watercolor paints (remember my Watercolors collection before this one).
The results, obviously, speak for themselves. When I finished this piece, I knew I was really onto something. Here's something that can be visually bold and complex, allow for improvisation, and seriously stretch art into new territory.
Here's a great anecdote about this painting. When I exhibited at Chicago's Skokie Art Fair in summer 2000, I brought this painting (along with Mario and Yoshi). There was one old woman who fell in love with it. Turns out she was a retired art teacher, and she still shared a passion for making art. She was so enamored by what she saw, she promised to go immediately home and learn how to paint like this. That's a great sense of satisfaction.
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